Maps are visual abstraction of physical space and have been used for navigation for a long time. With advent of internet and mobile devices, the ease of accessibility to maps and hence use of maps has increased manifold. As with conventional maps, the online accessible maps also provide directions for navigation.
Maps are improving constantly and the improvements have largely been in the visual aspect and to some extent on the accessibility aspect as well. Systems for Voice based navigation like Google Maps™ have also been in use. Conventional maps, in both online and paper modes, very well serve the needs of conventional users.
A visually able person would compare the surroundings with the details in the map and hence successfully navigate.
For differently abled users, especially visually-impaired users, it has been a challenge to navigate by interpreting the current maps, as he or she will not be able to easily associate the map with the surrounding environment. Hence with the current technology of providing maps online and through mobile devices, such challenges in terms of accessibility of the information for navigation continue to exist.
Existing systems and methods have made attempts for overcoming these issues by using text to speech functionality to read out the details on the map and also by giving voice based guidance. However these existing systems and methods provide limited gains for users.